Dallas ISD welcomes back students, opens new schools

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Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer

Renee Hayes, a fourth-grade teacher at Prairie Creek Elementary in Richardson, got hugs and high fives Monday after she was named 2013 Teacher of the Year by the Kids in Need Foundation. It was a good way to begin a new school year.

Dallas ISD welcomed students back to school Monday as the district opened three new campuses and launched efforts to improve struggling schools.

The district began the year with 60 new principals and 143,412 kids — about 16,000 short of what was expected. The rest usually enroll in the first few weeks.

A new school, Thelma Elizabeth Page Richardson Elementary, opened in Pleasant Grove.

Two old schools that were scrapped and rebuilt opened near Fair Park: O.M. Roberts Elementary and Billy Earl Dade Middle School.

“The school year is going to be a great school year,” said DISD Superintendent Mike Miles, during a morning visit to Dade. “Our kids will be ready. Our teachers will be ready.”

For Texas school districts, the new school year brings additional state dollars and laws that will change education over the coming years. The state eliminated some standardized tests, is changing the role of counselors and plans to require freshmen to pick from an assortment of college or career tracks.

In DISD, principals and teachers hope to build on recent academic success. The district graduation rate for the Class of ’12 surpassed 80 percent, the fifth straight year of gains. And 7,300 students received diplomas in June, a 31-year high. Still, just 14.4 percent of seniors last year received high enough marks on admissions exams to be considered ready for college.

Students began arriving early Monday at Dade Middle School. The 1,000-capacity campus stretches an entire block on Grand Avenue and at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. From a distance, patches of red, blue and gray on the building resemble an African-American quilt.

Miles toured the campus with principal Alecia Cobb, who came from DeGolyer Elementary School. She showed him the gymnasium and a second-floor library with panoramic windows.

“Two-thirds of the staff is new,” Cobb told Miles. “Majority of them are first-year teachers.”

In the library, Miles shook hands with sixth-grade students and asked them about their education.

“What college do you plan to attend,” Miles asked one girl.

“Baylor,” she replied, smiling.

“That’s great,” Miles said.

Dade is among 20 DISD campuses in Miles’ Imagine 2020 initiative, an effort to bring community support and additional resources to improve those schools. It launches this school year at campuses in South Dallas and West Dallas.

Dade is one of the last new schools to be built with funds from a $1.3 billion bond program approved by voters in 2008.

Just down Grand Avenue, the new O.M. Roberts Elementary replaced a 101-year-old school building. But it wasn’t built without controversy. The district tried to buy some property to expand the size of the campus, but residents resisted, not wanting to give up their homes in the Jubilee Park neighborhood.

The district backed off and built the new school on the old campus along with additional property it had already obtained.

In Pleasant Grove, Richardson Elementary opened on Bruton Road. Principal Courtney Thomas said the first day went smoothly. “It was awesome. We’ve got some wonderful students and the parents are really excited about the new building,” Thomas said.

Students enter the school through a large lobby with a soaring ceiling. Erika Ortega has two students there and said her older kids wished their middle school looked like Richardson.

“They said, ‘How come this can’t be our middle school,’ ” she said. “I really like the school. It’s nice on the outside and inside.”

Follow Matthew Haag on Twitter at @matthewhaag and Tawnell D. Hobbs at @tawnell.

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